From 28 November to 2 December 2022, the first session of the Intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Negotiations were held to make initial progress on the development of a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development explicitly combines the promotion of peaceful, just, and inclusive societies in its Goal 16, which ‘seeks to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.’

QUNO New York UN Representative Kavita Desai joined a panel on November 3rd hosted by the Baha’i International Community (BIC) and the Coalition for the United Nations We Need, entitled “Tipping the Scales: Proposals for UN Reform in a Time of Need.”

The discussion included reflections on proposals for reform, as well as an exploration on how such proposals can be implemented—getting from ideation to actualization, in the words of one attendee.

It is five months since States met at the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) to assess implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and agree priorities to accelerate action. The Annual Meeting of the UN Network on Migration in October brought together nearly 700 participants, including over 160 in person, from governments, UN agencies, and stakeholders to outline next steps. 

On 25 October, QUNO New York hosted Jehad Abusalim and Asmaa Abu Mezeid, two of the authors of the newly published anthology ‘Light in Gaza: Writings Born in Fire’, for an intimate conversation at Quaker House with QUNO staff and members of the UN Israel-Palestine NGO Working Group.

With the situation in Gaza often framed purely as a military or humanitarian issue, this conversation provided an opportunity to hear about people’s experiences under occupation.

On 3 October, QUNO Geneva engaged with the work of the Human Rights Council on systemic racism.

Speaking in the first dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on Law Enforcement and Racism, Director Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge drew on her own experience of police violence in apartheid South Africa. Welcoming the work of the Expert Mechanism and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nozizwe went on to say: